6: Strip Search

There was no anything inside those eyes.

They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. [MUSIC PLAYING] Evil wake up! I'm the one that saw the murder.

Take place by dream at end of Pippo.

“Anthony DiPippo showed no signs of remorse,”

appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. I said I'm not guilty, I'll take it to the grave. Listen to the devil's quarry in the bone valley feed on the I-Hark radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[MUSIC PLAYING] All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here. Our podcast is called Hey Jonas. But for you, since everyone has a podcast,

we wanted to as well.

And we've had some incredible guests so far.

And now our good friend, Nihal Horan, is joining the show. I was going boys. Hey Nihal. That's the same thing with Sloan. It's not about anything else really, isn't it?

Yeah, you know, our taste so good can't be about food. You do the same, Nick, with some of the stuff that you've done. You too, Joe. [LAUGHTER] Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas

on the I-Hark Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi listeners, I'm Michelle, host of the Kingdom of Fraud Podcast. And I'm excited to share this incredible story with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can get access

to all episodes of Kingdom of Fraud.

100% ad-free, and one week early, through the I-Hark True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-topping, true crime shows you love, like the girlfriends, the trail, the godmother,

paper goes, piked in massacre, murder homes, unrestorable, and more. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for I-Hark True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Things are getting eerie this week on Snaffoo with Ed Helms. My favorite murder hosts Karen Kilgarif and Georgia Hardstark join me for the unsolved kidnapping of William Morgan. It's a great true crime story

“filled with secret society intrigue and murder.”

For an instant file. Karen, you just birthed a conspiracy, and I'm here for it. Yay! Listen to Snaffoo on the I-Hark Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[MUSIC PLAYING] novel. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Kingston household is thrumbing with activity. Days ago, a guy named Mr. Green,

tip Jacob off about imminent federal raids. Now, Jacob is trying to remove anything that could incriminate him or the order from the house he shares with his brawling family. He told us we had to get all of our pictures

down off the wall, anything that has to do with the order. Then we had to hide and take out of our house. Jenny Kingston has been married to Jacob's son, Jacob Jr., since 2015. Now, in February 2016, she's among the many family members helping

her father-in-law, Flier, the Salt Lake City Mansion. He just told us all that they're going to raid us and to be prepared. Jenny says she doesn't know anything about Jacob's fraud. But something dramatic is clearly unfolding.

So she does what she's told. Meanwhile, Jacob is orchestrating the same frantic cleanup at his company headquarters, and at the remote WRE plant. Employees are ripping hard drives out of computers,

moving boxes of documents. But Jacob also knows that it's not just him in his company that the feds are targeting, and he's warned the order big shots. He also said that he told Paul and a bunch of the order

businesses that the raid was coming, and that they should hide all their stuff. A storm is gathering over order members. They're trying to get Paul is what we are told, trying to get the order,

and they're doing it through Jacob's companies. After they've done all the covering up they can, members of the family we. Until one cold Wednesday morning in February. - I was naked in bed asleep.

“And I remember banging on the doors really loud.”

The front door and the garage door at the same time. I remember like waking up and a bunch of police officers

It's a ton of them all through the house. They're like put your hands up.

“They brought us all into the big main room altogether”

while they searched and raided the houses. - That same morning at the WRE headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City, armed officers smashed through the front door with a battering ram.

They swarmed throughout the building and spread across the open plan office. This raid is meant to be a moment of triumph for the feds.

They're finally coming out of the shadows.

But they quickly realize something is not right. - They'd go into a desk and there was literally a dust outline of where a computer used to be. - Tyler Hatcher is a special agent in charge with the IRS Criminal Investigations Division.

- There were files we knew we wanted. Transactions with blah, blah, blah on these days.

“- His team is scouring filing cabinets and drawers,”

looking for anything and everything listed on this search warrant. - Completely empty. God, just God. - The place has been cleaned out. Has someone on the team been making?

Confused agents wander around, trying to make sense of what they're seeing. All this potential evidence against Jacob or the order has evaporated. Or so they think until the agents make a discovery.

- We really looked out. - In all that frenetic activity to clear out evidence,

one crucial thing was forgotten.

- Turns out there was a backup server, nobody knew about what we did, so we grabbed it. - A backup server that contains everything. Every document, every email that has been stored,

“sent or received by Washington or newable energy.”

- It was like four terabytes of data off that server. Like give me 10 years to go through all of that evidence. - The feds found a treasure trove. What's in there will blow their minds. (upbeat music)

- My name is Michelle McPhay, and from the teams at Novel and Ihar podcast, this is Kingdom of Fraud, episode six, strip search. (upbeat music)

- Tyler Hatcher's first meeting about the order

will forever be emblazoned in his brain. - I remember it vividly. - It's the summer of 2016, a few months after the raids, and one of Tyler's bosses has a question for him. - Can you pop in for this meeting?

We've got this really big case. My background is organized crime and drug cartels. And she said, "Hey, it's not typical of what you're used to, but it has a very organized crime field to it." Tyler is happy to sit in.

He's been hoping to make his way back home to Salt Lake City. Until now, he's been posted in the Netherlands. - At my duejuts who clubbed there, I was the only American, so they nicknamed me Captain America,

so it's kind of stuck. - That's hilarious. - Okay, that explains the Captain America socks, sticking out Tyler's pant leg during our interview. - You should see my office.

- I did. - It's like a Captain America museum in there. Anyway, back in 2016, Tyler walks into that big case meeting. - And they had this org chart, if you will, of all the family members of the order.

I remember looking at that, and just the way it was plotted out on a sheet, I was like, yeah, that's definitely organized crime. - That's Tyler's opinion after seeing the complicated elaborate of connections laid out in the chart.

- The biofuel side of it was a small part of the overarching case at that point. The original case was looking at the finances of the family and of the organization. - The agents need to dig through the mountains of seas data

and figure out whether there's enough evidence to actually prosecute anyone. Tyler is more than game to help. - Around this time, special agents Steven Washburn also joins the team.

- They said, we need you to help out on this case. - And sometime later, so does author Eventchick, a federal prosecutor from the Department of Justice.

- And it was a big deal to be assigned to that case.

“- Now, Captain America is joined by the tax Avengers.”

- When the team shakes into place, it consists of nearly a dozen agents and prosecutors. From the gecko, they're worried about the leak, the mysterious Mr. Green. Was it someone on their own team?

- Who do you think the leak was? - To this day, I honestly don't know. - It's unequivocal about the phone call. - Absolutely, a phone call was made. - From an IRS building.

- See, so that was the allegations that it came in from an IRS number. We'd ran that down and that's not accurate. It did not come from an IRS network phone, but that's not saying it wasn't an IRS employee.

That's possible.

- Apparently the Fed's never figured out who the leak or was.

But by then, Jacob has so many connections that it really could be anyone, which is why Tyler says they run an extremely tight ship. - We are keeping this one close to the West.

“Nothing got shared outside of the group.”

And when we did something, we were only letting the people know that needed to know. - As the team works through the evidence from the raids, it becomes clear that the money trails are beyond complex.

They can't chase down every lead. Any investigation into the group as a whole would be too broad. They have to narrow their focus. - We gotta just pick a horse and race it.

- Stephen Washburn says one part of the sprawling case stands out. - This biodiesel fraud is very agretious, 'cause that's where most of the money was. - Coming from Washington.

- The agents see hundreds of millions of what they suspect to be defrauded US dollars flowing in and out of WRE. - The prosecutors made the decision that the biofuel was much bigger

than anything else we were looking at. And so at that point, we decided to really focus on the biofuel stuff. - But there's also another reason, the zero-win on WRE.

Someone inside the operation has flipped. - After those rates, Jacob starts making calls,

'cause first is to Darrell Leone.

Remember that logistics guy from Miami?

“The one Lebanh suspected of snitching a few years ago?”

Jacob and Darrell had agreed to a clean, destined code that would signal the feds of shown up. In this call, Jacob drops it, saying, "We bought soybeans today." - He also can't help himself

and adds a little chest thumping. - I'm on TV, turn on Fox 13 and you'll see me. - Federal agents shut down businesses tied to the Kingston Polygamous Group. Fox 13 confirmed it's tied to the group's vast business empire.

- Jacob also called Lebanh, but they're not taking any chances on the phone. Jacob suggests that they meet at their spot, which happens to be in Sin City at their favorite hotel, the wind. (gentle music)

- A few days later, they meet up in the grandeur of the hotel atrium. Jacob starts to run his mouth, but Lebanh shuts him up with a look and leads the way towards the elevators.

It's likely Jacob can't help but be nervous. Following his techie business partner into a luxury suite, and he wasn't wrong. - Lebanh immediately orders him to strip down to his underwear, straight out of a cheesy cop drama.

When Lebanh doesn't see a mic taped to Jacob's chest, they get down to business. Here's my producer, Jake, reading Jacob's testimony about this scene. - He said that the raid was not in the system,

that he was not aware of it, and that his boys would look into it and try to take care of it. - Lebanh tells Jacob to stay strong, to keep his mouth shut,

and he sends him to talk to Darrell, who he still doesn't trust. So a couple of weeks later, Jacob shows up in Miami, and he texts Darrell to beat him

at a restaurant called Organic Bites, just a block away from Miami Beach. I've got Darrell's testimony about his meeting with Jacob, so here is my super talented producer, Jake,

switching roles and reading Darrell's version of events. I had my wife drop me off nearby. I was concerned for safety. I walked a couple of blocks down to Organic Bites. I don't see him there.

I saw him across the street at a motel waving at me. I crossed the street. We went inside his motel room, and he said, "Take off your shirt." He wanted to know if I was wired.

I had just gotten a tattoo that he didn't know about.

that the body is a temple,

and so I was a little embarrassed.

“I took off my shirt, he took off his shirt,”

I turned around, and then he asked me to put myself on in the microwave. He asked me if I'd spoken to the government. I told him, "No," he said, "Don't worry. There are people on the inside who are going to take care of this."

Now is the time for the people that we paid to go to work. He said, "Be strong." It's clear. No one in this conspiracy trusts anyone anymore, but they all reassure one another.

They're not a rat. Only Levan was right. Derell could not be trusted. He's already joined Team America. Derell at that point has already been in touch

within attorney, and has already made contact with the government. Derell has become Queen for a day.

Feds speak for the first person

in a massive criminal conspiracy to roll. As soon as the rat hit, he's like, "I got to go in first, I got to talk." He was very anxious about it, and he's like, "I got to get in there."

I'm done with this.

“Derell's information is a crucial turning point”

for the entire case. -Absolutely gold mine for us. -He spills everything he knows about the biofuel fraud. About how he orchestrated the cycles of tankers and trucks through Panama.

How he faked endless paperwork at Jacob's behest. How he and Jacob said tens of millions of dollars back and forth in fake biofuel sales. What he describes is fraud on a gigantic, unimaginable scale.

But the scheme Derell outlines doesn't include Levan. Derell has worked closely with Jacob and his family, but he's only ever met Levan for times. As far as the Feds are concerned, it's as if Levan doesn't even exist.

-Our original case, it was Jacob, Isaiah, Sally, and Rachel. -Just at the Kingston. -Levan, the way he set up his deal was actually very, very, very smart.

“-His name is basically invisible in the documents”

the agents are going through. Only loyal, his company pops up here and there as one of the many clients who have bought fuel from WRE over the years. -As fingerprints were just so far removed,

you couldn't quite get a grasp on him. -But Tyler and his team continue painstakingly pouring over documents, building out a picture of this fraud with unfettering precision. -A big portion of my time was consumed

on analyzing these bank records. -The agents pull years of data from dozens of bank accounts connected to WRE. They trace money flowing between Jacob's company and his customers.

They load all of it into gargantuan spreadsheets. God bless these agents on ending Excel spreadsheets, visit me in my nightmares. -I just worked in my office and just through headphones on. When I'm doing stuff like spreadsheets

as dumbet may sound, I listen to a lot of EDM music. There's no words get in my head to throw me off that I can just sort of tune out and just look at numbers. -I compiled all of these spreadsheets for each bank account. I went through and tediously reconciled

then to make sure they matched. All right, this account, the balance I have from this spreadsheet is off by like $2,500. And I'd have to go through and make sure that I could account for all of that $2,500.

-My family wasn't with me at the time, so I was open to working 10 and 12 and 14 hour days, so I just jumped into all of the bank spread, trying to figure out who the players were. -But I got done with these spreadsheets.

Every bank account reconciled to the penny to what the bank statement said. -It's during one of these long ass days of endlessly trudging through spreadsheets. When Tyler spots something.

-I started noticing this money going to Noil, which didn't make sense to me 'cause I knew what Noil was and knew they were a retail gas station, right? So if they were buying fuel,

money should be coming from Noil to Washington by the fuel. And it wasn't going that way. It's coming from Washington, Noil.

So that was my first red flag.

-Tiler leans back in his chair, Bingo.

tens of millions of dollars. Making it look like there is another player in Jacob's fraud. Someone they totally overlooked until now.

After the break, Tyler tugs at this loose thread. -In the moment, it felt like it was going on forever. I didn't think I was going to live. I was terrified. -There was no anything inside those eyes.

They turned black. It scared the hell out of me.

-That was your first murder case.

-Yes, sure.

“-Fair to say this was the biggest case here, career?”

-Yes, sir. -Red, the murder of a chunk is 12-year-old child. -It battles against. -I would think so. -People wake up and the one that saw the murder

paid place by crevents and the people. -A Anthony DiPipo showed no signs of remorse appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. -I said I'm not guilty, I'll take it to the grave. -Listen to the devil's quarry on the iHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear the devil's quarry add free with exclusive content, subscribe to Love of For Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. -All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here, our podcast is called Hey Jonas. But for you, since everyone has a podcast, we want it to as well.

And we've had some incredible guests so far.

And now, our good friend, Nile Horne, is joining the show. -I was going boys. -Hey Nile? -I was the same thing with Sloan.

“It's still Ann's is not about anything else, really, is it?”

-Yeah, you know, our taste so good can't be about food. You do the same thing, but some of the stuff that you've done. -You too, Joe? [ Laughter ] -Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever, you listen to your podcast.

-Hi listeners, I'm Michelle, host of the Kingdom of Fraud Podcast, and I'm excited to share

this incredible story with you.

I'm also excited to tell you that you can get access to all episodes of Kingdom of Fraud. 100% ad-free in one week early, through the iHard True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love, like the girlfriends. The trail, the godmother, paper goes, piked in massacre, murder homes, unrestorable, and

more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHard True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

“That we hear about in the news, body bags is where you need to turn.”

There's no fluff, we do a deep dive into the forensics. Listen to body bags, with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's #1 podcast network, iHard. Open your free iHard app and search body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan, and start listening. In the days and weeks after the search warrants, it seems to Jenny Kingston that Jacob's main concern is protecting the order.

He was worried that they were going to get Paul, and that it would be his fault that Paul got arrested, that was the biggest thing he was worried about. She also notices a shift in Jacob when talking about work. The way he acted in like family meetings and stuff, and you could just tell that something was bothering him.

For four, Jacob had all these grandiose visions for the future of his business empire. Now he just was less aggressive about his plans and getting things done, and more of like we need to focus on protecting ourselves and protecting our businesses, like setting up these businesses to where like if this one got sued, then there doesn't have any assets tied to it.

It sounds to me, like on the surface, Jacob wants to seem totally in control. But Jenny can see the stress. He picked out his fingers a lot, the skin around his fingernails, and they would bleed. Jacob has plenty of reasons to worry, because just a short drive across town, at the IRS

Noil connection really means, more and more of the evidence is pointing them towards Levant.

“We started noticing there was an orbit, and that orbit happened to be in Los Angeles.”

We're like, "All right, there's got to be more here than just a cellar, a fuel in its customer." It was almost like a black hole out there where you knew stuff was moving around him, but you couldn't quite see it. It's really needed to entangle this relationship, his boots on the ground, door knocking

in Los Angeles. I was teamed up with Tyler Hatcher, and we were the LA guys. Levant's place was in Beverly Hills, so we would stay out there depending on where we could get hotel.

We pull up an LA, and we're just interviewing witnesses.

Tyler and Stephen spend weeks stuck in traffic on LA's thoroughfares. They badge the way past security guards at gated communities, and hang out at upscale hotels. Hoping that someone talks something shakes loose. All to get to the bottom of how Levant fits into this puzzle, and who Noil's mysterious owner really is.

Everybody around him, we're scared. There's stories where one of our witnesses was at dinner, and Hollywood somewhere Levant shows up and just starts screaming like in public at this witness, the intimidating and threatening and that kind of stuff. It doesn't take them long to realize Levant has a colorful history with LA law enforcement,

but his role in Jacob's fraud is a little less clear. So the agents get a subpoena and hopes of figuring out Noil's relationship with WRA. I was trying to figure out what did Noil buy, or what did they sell to Washington. Tyler decides that he and Stephen will deliver this subpoena personally. I wanted to kind of get a read-on like what was his provoto, what was his character.

They make the same drive Jacob has so many times. On an LA highway to commerce. I came up and parked right behind the SUVs, and that's where I ran into the bodyguards. As ever, the black escalies, the bulky bodyguards, and Levant's line statues, stand guard outside the double-wide trailer office.

The agents flashed their badges and asked for the guy in charge, which is when Levant walks out of the trailer. He's got that kind of pompous swagger to him, greasy kind of want to be gangster guy.

“Like I think at the time, he had like a black silk shirt on and black pants and just jewelry”

and the whole thing, right?

This is Levant's first impression on the agents.

The way Tyler tells it, it wasn't a very good one. So Tyler decides to push Levant's buttons a little. Tyler says, I'm sorry, who are you and he's like, he seemed a little offended. He's like, I'm Levant and we're like, okay, what's your last name, Levant? And he's like, he seemed very flustered that we didn't know who he was.

The Germanian, I'm Germanian and like, oh, okay, Levant, friends, okay. And he's like, who are you saying, I own this, hey, he looked at us and said, you're fed, how do you not know who I am? Eventually, the agents tell Levant they're investigating Jacob Kingston and his company. Levant doesn't even flinch, he insists he's just Jacob's customer.

Tyler and Steven hand over the subpoena for records and take off. Our conversation was literally maybe five minutes. Those records themselves were not very illuminating. For Tyler though, it's the meeting with Levant that matters. It only takes me a few seconds to kind of read into somebody and like, after my interaction

“with him, I remember leaning over my cohesion as a, yep, that is our target.”

He's involved way more than just being an offload for fuel. So they keep scratching at their growing suspicions about this guy. I did dozens of interviews and as a team we did hundreds of interviews in this case with anybody and everybody that sold fuel or purchased fuel and were able to kind of build that story.

Many of these people turned out to be co-conspirators in the fraud who did business with Jacob in a bunch of corrupt and complicated ways.

None of these people were willing to do 15 years in federal prison for their small part. So many of them were happy to play ball with us and many of them were pointing at Levant saying that he was involved in some of the negotiations on behalf of WRE and so we weren't quite sure why Levant would be speaking on behalf of WRE. This comes up over and over again.

We talked to all these witnesses, getting information about this meeting in a restaurant in LA where they're talking about fraud and Jacob was there. But Levant was also there and Jacob just sort of shut up in the side and Levant ran the meeting.

“They start to think, is Levant actually running the whole show?”

It's a tantalizing theory, but to prove it, they need to find something concrete against him. These are IRS agents. So there's only one thing to do, you got to follow the money, see where it goes.

And that really led us to Turkey over $100 million of Central Turkey.

They discover the Turkey connection, the investments that Jacob sunk the stolen money into. But as the agents follow the money, they realized that a big chunk of it didn't just stay in Turkey. In many cases, it was just a flyover country for the stolen loot. That money was almost instantaneously transferred back to California to a company called

Speedy Lion, which is associated with Levant. Like the money goes to Turkey and then immediately comes back to the U.S., and it goes to Levant's benefit. All of a sudden, the whispers about Levant from co-conspirators and co-operators are taking shape.

“Now the agents believe they have hard evidence Levant was benefiting from Levant.”

All of that pointed Levant, like every time Levant and Jacob went to Turkey, Jacob was clearly there as just like a passenger princess, and it was clearly Levant pulling the strings. There's the Utah side, the physical operations of what's going on at the plant every day. Isaiah and Jacob and all of them, and then there's Levant, who's sort of like the puppet master that you can't see.

This changes everything about the case. But after the break, the feds realize that Jacob and Levant's fraud isn't over. It's about to become even more brazen. In the moment, it felt like it was going on forever, I didn't think I was going to live. I was terrified.

There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. That was your first murder case. Yes, sure.

“It's fair to say this was the biggest case here, career.”

Yes, sir. Right, the murder of her chunk is probably more challenging. It battles against. I would think so. People wake up, and the woman saw the murder, paid place by crevents and the Pippo.

Anthony DiPippo showed no signs of remorse, appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. I said I'm not guilty, I'll take it to the grave. Listen to the devil's quarry on the iHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

We hear the devil's quarry ad-free with exclusive content. Subscribe to Lava for good plus on Apple Podcasts. All right, listen up, the Jonas Brothers here. Our podcast is called Hey Jonas, but for you, since everyone has a podcast, we want it to as well.

And we've had some incredible guests so far.

And now our good friend, Nile Horne, is joining the show. I was going boys. Hey Nile. That's the same thing with slow-eyed. It's not about anything else.

It's really, isn't it? Yeah, you know, our taste so good can't be about food. You do the same Nick with some of the stuff that you've done. You too, Joe. Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you listen to your podcast. Hi listeners, I'm Michelle, host of the Kingdom of Fraud Podcast.

And I'm excited to share this incredible story with you.

I'm also excited to tell you that you can get access to all episodes of Kingdom of Fraud. 100% ad-free, and one week early, through the iHard True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-topping True Crime shows you love, like the Girl

Friends. The trail, the godmother, paper goes, piked in massacre, murder homes, unrestorable, and

Don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHard True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

“podcast network, iHard, open your free iHard app, and search body bags with Joseph Scott”

Morton, and start listening. One day, in early 2016, there's an alert in the iRS system. A brand new tax credit claim has just been filed by Washiki Renewable Energy, and it's a doozy. It was just an insane amount.

Less than two weeks later, a second claim comes in. Once again, it's a staggering amount of money.

Together, the two claims are worth, ready, six, hundred and forty-four million dollars.

More than all the money Jacob in the bond have stolen so far, put together. If these two claims get paid out, it would put the fraud at over a billion dollars. For two supposedly smart criminals, this is a pretty dumb move.

“That claim came in when our case was open.”

Of course we're going to pay attention to it. Believe it or not, someone inside the beige bowels of the iRS is actually about to cut these checks. Before that can happen though, the agents race to kibosh this audacious attempt. Despite having the feds on their ass, Jacob in Levant frenetically continues scheming.

Still hoping the big checks will come through. In 2016 and 2017, they continued meeting in Los Angeles, and flying to Istanbul to see Barron, the man allegedly helping Jacob in Levant launder the fraud proceeds. Tyler, meanwhile, uses the resources of the federal government to keep tabs on these movements, especially Levant's.

I was tracking his foreign travel.

“He had access to a couple different private planes.”

In the midst of all this, Tyler hears from a cooperator that Levant has flown abroad. Then returned back to the US, which is confusing. If Levant has crossed the border, he should have gotten all kinds of alerts.

I was never notified of those trips.

He came and went, "I got no heads up, I would of course do the data searches and didn't ping anything. No passenger manifest, no indication that he left the country, no indication that he came back." Levant is clearly so well-connected, he can evade immigration.

Right then I was like, "Okay, he's got somebody working something somewhere." According to Arthur, the former DOJ prosecutor, Levant's ability to slide out of the country without detection is a massive threat to the investigation. We knew that these guys had sucked all this money away in Turkey, and Turkey has a complicated relationship with the United States.

Traditions out of Turkey are very complicated, and so we knew if these guys go to Turkey were in trouble. In the summer of 2017, Levant signals that could be his plan. That June, Levant files a petition with the Superior Court of California to legally change his name.

He wants to be known as "Leve, Aslan, Derman." It's a Turkish name. Aslan, in Turkish means, "You guessed it." Levant. But despite the looming danger of Levant slipping away, Arthur and the prosecution team still

aren't ready to take down the case. They want to nail down every aspect of the fraud before swooping it.

All the while, Jacob and Levant are still waiting for those half a billion dollar checks

from the IRS. But, if the money comes, Levant will need to justify getting all those millions from Jacob. So, he comes up with a nifty plan. As a way to legitimize getting money to Levant, Levant put a really massive lawsuit on him.

If they settle, Jacob will legally have to pay Levant hundreds of millions of dollars. But there's another reason Levant sued Jacob.

Arthur says Levant thought Jacob's time was running out.

Levant realizes that the federal government is circling around Jacob Kingston and that they're not going to get away with this for much longer. He's just doing everything he can to claim that he is in an antagonistic relationship with Jacob. He knows that the gig is up, and so he's creating distance.

Levant is becoming increasingly ruthless in his treatment of Jacob. He's squeezing Jacob Kingston for every penny that he can get.

“Their conversations are just about, you owe me money, you need to get me the money.”

Don't talk to me unless it's to give me money. In June 2018, WRI receives a fresh round of subpoenas. Jacob texts Levant to see if he could come see him the next day. Levant texts him back. Okay, no problem.

As long as you bring some money, you owe me. Jacob starts to panic. He's running low on cash and wants Levant's reassurance. More importantly, he needs his umbrella of protection. But Levant's been blowing him off. In soon, Levant's connections will seem small-time.

Farang Korkmots also starts promising Jacob cover.

“From his high-powered friends, for a fat price.”

Korkmots over in Turkey is demanding $6 million.

Jacob testifies that Barron tells him he can even get the former director of the CIA. Code-named grandpa to step in. If Jacob pays $6 million. He's defrautive him. Allegedly defrautting him that is.

Thinking that Barron's connections could be his last shot at deliverance from the law. Jacob tries to scrape the money together. He's selling everything that he has in order to make those payments. It's a fire sale. The chrome Lamborghini that Levant mentioned gave him.

The jewels that he bought for his wife selling off parts of their biodiesel factory, selling off whatever he can sell for whatever money he can get to send over to Korkmots.

“It's important to note that Barron Korkmots has been indicted on charges of money laundering”

and wire fraud by federal prosecutors. But years later, he still hasn't been dried. We've reached out to him for comment, but he never responded. However, he has pleaded not guilty. By selling all those worldly possessions, Jacob manages to send $6 million to Turkey, supposedly

for protection. Still, deep down, he senses the gig is up. All his money is gone.

That crazy attempt at those $600 million dollar IRS checks never comes through.

His company, Wari, is on its knees. People even start getting fired. By August 2018, Jacob is out of options, which is when he and his first wife Sally do the exact thing the feds have feared the most. We got information that Jacob and Sally had bought to get to Turkey, and were like, "Ah, crap.

Because we were not ready to take this case at that point." If Jacob goes to Turkey, it could kill the years long investigation. But the feds aren't ready to arrest yet. So, what do they do? That's next week.

From the finale of Kingdom of Rod. Kingdom of Rod is produced by novel from iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel.audio. The show is hosted by me, Michelle McFee, and produced by Jake Otayovic. It's reported by me and Jake Otayovic.

Our system produces our Megan Dean and Amalia Sortland. With additional production from Myron Kaplan and Liz Sanchez, our editor is Sandra Schmoulli.

Our fact chapter is Fendell Fulton.

“Sound designed and mixing by Mark Pittum, a original music composed and performed by Nicholas”

Alexander in Daniel Kempson. Music supervision from Jake Otayovic, Sandra Schmoulli, and Max O'Brien. Willard Fafson is creative director at novel. Our executive producers are me, Michelle McFee, Max O'Brien, and Craig Stracken for novel and Stephanie Lange.

Katrina Norbell and Nikki E. Twar are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing lead is Alice in Canter. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson and the whole team at WME. There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black.

It's scared the hell out of me. Evil wake up, and the woman saw the murder, take place by cream at Fendell Fippo. Anthony DiPippo showed no signs of remorse, appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. I said I'm not guilty, I'll take it to the grave.

Listen to the devil's quarrel in the bone valley feed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts. All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here, our podcast is called Hey Jonas, but for you, since everyone has a podcast, we wanted to as well.

And we've had some incredible guests so far, and now our good friend, Nile Horan, is

joining the show. I was going boys.

“It's the same thing with slow-hand, slow-hand is not about anything else really is it?”

Yeah, you know, our taste so good can't be about food. You do the same Nick, for some of the stuff that you've done. You too, Joe. Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hi listeners, I'm Michelle, host of the Kingdom of Fraud Podcast.

And I'm excited to share this incredible story with you.

I'm also excited to tell you that you can get access to all episodes of Kingdom of Fraud. 100% ad-free in one week early through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-topping True Crime shows you love, like the girlfriends,

the trail, the godmother, paper goes, piped in massacre, murder homes, unrestorable, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Things are getting eerie this week on Snaffoo with Ed Helms.

My favorite murder hosts Karen Kilgarif and Georgia Hardstarke join me for the unsolved kidnapping of William Morgan.

“It's a great true crime story filled with secret society intrigue and murder.”

Karen, you just birthed a conspiracy and I'm here for it. Listen to Snaffoo on the iHeart Radio App Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.